WHO commends SP on commitment to universal healthcare

The World Health Organization (WHO) has commended

Saraki had said that 1% of Nigeria’s budget would be used to provide basic primary healthcare services across the country.

In a tweet, the WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described the move as the needed drive towards achieving the universal health coverage.

“Good news! The President of the Senate of Nigeria, Bukola Saraki committed to ensure 1% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund is included in Nigeria’s budget to strengthen primary healthcare. Political will at all levels is needed for #HealthForAll,” the WHO boss said via Twitter.

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Saraki, had in a keynote address delivered at the 58th Annual General and Scientific Conference of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) on Thursday, May 3, 2918, reiterated the commitment of the Senate towards ensuring ensuring that all Nigerians have access to basic healthcare.

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“As I intimated when the delegation led by the NMA President and the Executive called on me at my office, and as I reiterate now, Primary and Universal Health Care provision is a key legislative agenda for the 8th Senate under my leadership. It is a promise that we have made to Nigerians, and one that we are determined to keep", Saraki said according to a statement by Olu Onemola, his Special Assistant on New Media.

Recall that on June 24, 2017, the Senate President launched the Legislative Network for Universal Health Coverage and urged the Federal Government to honour the Abuja Declaration of 2001, while also calling for the full implementation of the National Health Act of 2014, which he helped to formulate in the 7th Senate (2011 to 2015).

“There is no better place than here today, to announce that the issue of funding will be attended to in our budgetary review of the 2018 Appropriations Bill. The Senate has, with the cooperation of the House of Representatives, resolved to mandate our Committees on Appropriations to ensure that the pledge to set aside 1 per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) is met,” Saraki said.

With this move by Saraki, Nigeria’s health expenditure as a proportion of government’s general expenditure - which currently stands at just 4 percent — is expected to increase significantly, while at the same time reducing the cost of out-of-pocket expenditure of Nigerians for healthcare, which is currently pegged at 73 percent.